FMEA-resilience framework for planning maintenance of medical devices using fuzzy logic and Simulink

Hospitals are compelled to mitigate the frequency and impact of potential failure modes of medical devices, develop an effective maintenance planning strategy, and improve patient satisfaction. This study, therefore, developed a framework that combines resilience principles with fuzzy failure mode and effects analysis (FFMEA) for maintenance planning using the risk Iso-surface method, fuzzy matching sets, and Simulink. The proposed framework used the FFMEA approach to estimate the risk index ( RI ), resilience assessment to obtain the resilience index ( RE ), and developed an RI - RE plot to be used for maintenance planning. The RI estimation of failure modes involved the identification, analysis, and assessment of risk components; severity, occurrence, and detection, utilizing fuzzy logic and matching sets. The RE was measured by four resilience potentials via a survey consisting of 51 questions and then evaluated using fuzzy logic. Finally, the RI - RE plot was divided into 12 zones to determine adequate maintenance strategies for all failure modes. A real case study, which consisted of 22 failure modes for six intensive care unit medical devices, was presented for validation. Results revealed that the developed framework effectively identified adequate resilient maintenance policies with suitable maintenance actions for all failure modes. In conclusion, the framework is found to be valuable and can support maintenance engineering in developing effective maintenance planning for medical devices under fuzzy evaluations and unexpected failure modes.